According to the WHO, a counterfeit medicine is ‘a medicine which is deliberately and fraudulently mislabelled with respect to identity and/or source’. Experts estimate that 10% of medicines in the world are counterfeits.

Counterfeit medicines are a danger to individual health and public health: they contribute to an increase in infection rates, deprive not only inventors and manufacturers but also governments of financial revenue, and are therefore an obstacle to further research.

1. What steps will the Commission take to tackle that trade more effectively?

2. Is the Commission considering launching a communication campaign in order to tackle the counterfeiting of medicines and reveal the dangers of that trade?